Traditional hearing aids help improve auditory perception of patients suffering from hearing loss by performing the simple function of amplifying all ambient sound as received by the hearing aid. Particularly, the audio signal enhancement techniques used in the traditional hearing aids can only operate in a static manner, where a certain configuration or setting is maintained independent of the user's environment or changes in the user's needs.
For example, a user of a hearing aid device may be facing a person nearby and listening to that person during a conversation. The traditional hearing aid can be adjusted to control the volume of voice signals received from the nearby distance. Such setting, however, would not optimize the user's auditory experience if he also wants to listen to music delivered by loudspeakers to the left of the user, or if the user wants to listen to another person located at a further distance behind.